Catt strips out mystique

Winter storm: Bath's Gavin Thomas powers through the Saracens defence

By Steve James at Vicarage Road

7:57PM GMT 30 Dec 2000

Saracens 11 Bath 31

BATH prevailed in the battle of two of the Premiership's more enigmatic sides, through two tries from England centre Mike Tindall, but more importantly a wonderfully assured and creative performance at outside-half from Mike Catt.

They triumphed comprehensively in the end, but for long periods were under the cosh and Saracens will be ruing their inability to use their plentiful possession through being too lateral and predictable in attack.

Snow and ice covered most of the pitch, despite the strenuous last-minute efforts of the groundstaff and Bath were not entirely convinced when they arrived.

Related Articles

There are many who do not concur with the co-habitation of football and rugby but its worth here yesterday accentuated the progressive path rugby must tread to survive and prosper.

Saracens have never been anything but forward-thinking since the advent of professionalism and are to be applauded for that, but they are still attempting to discover that elusive `X' factor, which renders consistent and enduring success on the field.

The game began dramatically; Rob Thirlby's return to his old stamping ground began dreadfully when he spilled Kyran Bracken's box kick in the first minute - the first of many handling errors which even in this professional age could probably be excused on a bitterly cold afternoon.

Bath soon won a line-out and recycled skilfully before Catt fed Tindall, a doubt beforehand with an elbow injury, who backed into Tim Horan before pirouetting out of the tackle to cross under the posts. The former Australia centre was injured in the process and was soon forced off.

Inside 15 minutes Tindall had grabbed his second, this time receiving the try-scoring pass from Dan Lyle after Catt had made the initial thrust in midfield.

Bath were full of adventure and purpose with their backs, especially the forceful centre pairing of Tindall and Ireland international Kevin Maggs, looking the more dangerous and inventive.

Saracens eventually kick-started their afternoon, inevitably through the ever-reliable line-out source of Scott Murray, who instigated a drive from which Bath were penalised. Kevin Sorrell, no longer the stand-in novice kicker, slotted the opportunity.

Bath were now under serious pressure and persistent offending led to prop John Mallett being sent to the sin-bin for the fourth time this season. In a game which was plagued by infringements and niggle there were further yellow cards later on for Saracens hooker Robbie Russell and Bath replacement Nathan Thomas.

Saracens seized upon the numerical advantage and spurned a penalty for a scrum, from which Kyran Bracken fed the outstanding Tony Diprose, whose wonderful sleight of hand put Richard Hill over in the corner.

The second half continued the rather scrappy theme but was enlivened by two further Bath tries. First Ian Balshaw deployed his exceptional pace to sprint through a gaping hole in the home defence and then Andy Long latched on to a speculative reverse pass from Bracken to secure a bonus point for a Bath side whose festive period ended cheerfully after the disappointment of Boxing Day defeat against Leicester.